The invention relates, generally, to an ink marking system and, more particularly, to an improved regulator valve/pulsation dampener for controlling the flow of ink to the jet nozzle of the ink marking system.
Oftentimes continuous flow ink jets use gear pumps to provide the ink pressure in the system and a fixed needle valve or a pressure relief valve to bypass some of the pump capacity back to the reservoir or pump inlet. The ink which is to be used for printing is taken from the high pressure portion of the fluid circuit and dropped through a small conventional "down stream" regulator. The ink is then sent through a separate component where the gear tooth frequency pulsations from the pump are dampened out.
One major drawback of the above-described prior art devices is that the pump is required to work against a pressure of at least 10 psi greater than the pressure needed by the ink at the jet nozzle. Because the pump must work at this higher level, energy is wasted and unnecessary wear is generated on the pump, prematurely shortening its life.
One way to avoid operating the pump in this manner is to provide a back pressure regulator which allows the pump to work only against the pressure needed by the nozzle. However, the use of such a conventional back pressure regulator still requires a separate component to smooth out the high frequency pulsations in the ink caused by the gear pump.
In addition to minimizing the pressure against which the pump must work, it is desirable to minimize the number of components in the fluid circuit and provide as compact a unit as possible. The more compact and unitary the design the lower the parts costs, assembly time, and the fewer the number of fittings and potential leak points.